Our "Blessing Way"

Our friends the Warkentin's threw us a "blesisng way" yesterday. It's not a shower, but a rights of passage into parenthood and it was one of the most beautifully significant experience that we have had so far in regards to our pregnancy and becoming parents.

I can't even explain all the details, I just wouldn't do it justice, but it involved our close family and friends. We ate a meal together. Then Kit and I shared our prayer requests for our pregnancy, labor, and parenthood. Then we wrote them on seeded paper (paper that has wild flower seeds in it) then planted them, symbolizing our giving them to the Lord. Then our parents prayed over us.

Then everyone shared affirmations and encouragements for Kit and I. Then everyone had written a letter to Ryder, and a special gift for our family to commemorate the blessing they had given us.

Again, I did not do it justice. It was a beautiful time with people that we love and I am so thankful that we have this community to welcome Ryder into.

Warks~ thank you so much for an AMAZING day! We love you!

And to our family and friends~ thank you for speaking into our lives and living life with us. We couldn't love you all more.

The proper care and feeding of husbands...

A couple of years ago I read the book "The Proper Care and Feeding of Husbands", and I think that it really changed how I do things in our house. I don't necessarily agree with everything in the book, but it made some great points that changed my mindset and the environment I create in our home, especially with Kit in mind.

For example, both Kit and I have jobs that require long hours and we both want our home to be a place of rest and unwinding after our long work days. So, for each other, we both think of what the house will be like when the other person arrives home from work. We take everything into account, from lighting to music to smells (think food...)... When we get home, there is relief when we walk in the door. We also try to greet each other with a 10 second kiss each time one of us arrives home.

Anyway, I have been thinking about those initial weeks after Ryder's arrival and how I KNOW the calm factor will probably go out the window, but I can still make the effort right?

So yesterday, I made a couple of Kit's (and my) favorite recipes to freeze and I was so proud of myself for thinking ahead.

So my hope is that even when I am still in my pajamas and it's 6 pm, and I'm delirious with sleep deprivation and I haven't showered for a day or so and I just want to cry, I know that our house will smell good, that Kit will be fed and that we will still have 10 second kisses coming our way.

Insomnia has it's perks...

I have a hard time sleeping in. Kit could sleep in until 11 am, however for me, sleeping in implies that I am in bed after 730 am. So with our pregnancy, I was not surprised that I would wake up early, however early has gone from 530 am to 330 am, which even for me is EARLY!

But this is what I saw out our kitchen window this morning, and it made me thankful that I was up to witness it. Isn't there something so amazing about sunrises and sunsets? So I had to share this photo with you. I hope that you have a great day (whatever time it started for you!)

Maternity leave...

Well, I have been contracting so I have been taken off of work. 12 hours was just a little too long of a day. We are almost 34 weeks and our goal is to have our little man stay put for as close to 40 weeks as we can. So I am just trying to rest up for his arrival and keep contractions to a minimum. Thank you all for your kind thoughts and prayers and we will keep you posted as we get more updates.

Here is our latest picture of Ryder's growth.

(Who am I kidding, I love putting all the "growth factor" on Ryder, but really, I am just getting bigger each day!)

We are really excited about meeting our little man!

Tangellos!

I had to brag on Kit's green thumb...

We just "harvested" over 200 tangellos from our little tree.

It's Grandpa Pierce's genes, I'm sure of it...

Orange juice anyone?

Spiritual Parenting

We recently attended a class at our church called spiritual parenting, taught by our close friend Michelle Anthony and it was amazing! I would strongly recommend attending the class. And if you are unable to do that, her book titled Spiritual Parenting will be out this June.

I am not always the best at describing philosophies or having the clearest communication though typing, but my friend Angelina, who works with Kit and who we attended the class with, did an amazing job on her blog describing spiritual parenting so I thought I would link you to her post here. (Ang, I am just riding your brilliant coat tales...)

You can also see the link to Michelle's book on this post.

birthing classes

Kit and I decided that we would do some birthing classes since we have never done this whole labor thing before. (I feel really comfortable at our hospital, but we really wanted Kit to be as prepared as possible too...) I was also able to take Kit on a private tour of our labor and delivery and postpartum units and introduce him to some of my co workers and friends. We are both so excited to get to deliver at my hospital.

Needless to say, we had a really good class and we are looking forward to the next few sessions.

Here we are on the classic birthing class mats with our pillows, working on relaxing exercises and shoulder massages... I have to say I am a fan of classes like these...

(and can we note how ROUND I am... my goodness!)

Kit is going to do an amazing job. I am so glad that we can do this together!

"say my name, say my name..."

Guess who said my name today as clear as a bell? Kit. Just kidding.

Our baby girl, that's who! I had called my sister to catch up and she put our niece on the phone. I started singing this song that I made up with her name and told her I loved her and she, according to my sister, just laughed and looked at the phone. Then I talked to my nephew, and while we were talking, my sister and I heard our baby girl say "Gina" and point to her ear and smile. So she put our niece back on the phone and our baby girl said "hi nina" into the phone! She is so smart! I was so excited!

(I am sure you couldn't tell...)

Wall decals...

We got some vinyl wall decals to put up in Ryder's room. We had our friend Alex Pavone (aka one of the greatest graphic designers ever) design an 'R' monogram for the wall and then we found some birds that we liked that we feel compliment our bird material.

So we put the 'R' up first but not too long after, noticed lots of bubbling and puckering and it just looked really bad. We think that there just might have been too much vinyl, so needless to say, we are trying to rethink the space that is over his crib. (I have a little project I am working on for Ryder that we plan to hang over the crib, so we are trying to incorporate all our favorite stuff at the same time...)

After we saw how the 'R' turned out, we were a little nervous to see how the birds would work out. We did all the same instructions on application and it worked out perfectly!

We are so pleased that we are thinking of maybe putting some more birds up over his crib if the 'R' doesn't work out.

(Alfred Hitchcock has nothing on us...)

a little project for our little man

I have an idea for Ryder's room. Here is a hint...

It's a mobile!

Ok, ok, it doesn't light up or help put a newborn to sleep, but I am so excited about it anyway...

I found this hanging frame at Urban Outfitters. Then I used some orange and chocolate brown card stock that I had from my card making stash. (The colors match the material perfectly...) I cut them into 3 inch squares to keep the mobile balanced.

Then I went though my iPhoto events and picked out favorite pictures of our immediate family and cropped them and turned them sepia. I ordered them in the wallet size at Costco because that size worked the best for the 3 inch squares.

I applied them randomly to the colored squares and here is the final product...

I know that, for awhile, he won't be able to see that great, having his vision inverted and black and white and all that stuff they say about newborn vision, but we love the idea that he goes to sleep looking at people that love him. Now that's the making of some sweet dreams!

We suspended the mobile from a hook anchored in the ceiling with fishing line. Kit is all about safety when he does projects for Ryder so that sucker is not going anywhere...

Lent

During this time of lent, Kit had the idea to pray every night for/over Ryder. We plan to pray with him every night and with his arrival coming sometime around Easter, this made our count down to his due date even more special to us.

In all honesty, lent usually represents giving something up that I love (generally a type of food) or giving up some form of technology with the hope of more exercise, but with the secret hope that I will lose weight... Um, that isn't the point...

So we are excited to use the next weeks until easter to not only reflect on the sacrifice that Jesus made for us, but also to consciously pray with discerning hearts about what God would have for us in this upcoming chapter of our lives as we approach parenthood.

We are almost there!

Our bathroom is dangerously close to being done. Because our bathroom is very small and narrow, we were really trying to think outside the box when it came to towel racks. We just want youto be able to use the bathroom and not impale yourself on our hardware. We finally decided on some wall hooks. We went to Anthropologie and we found these.

They come out two inches and Kit made sure that they were installed to hold the weight of our towels.

So here is the finished product...

We are pretty excited for how close we are to being done. The last thing to do is have the doors put on the vanity and then install it's hardware... Holy Smokes!

small triumph...

I think (I hope) that everyone has that drawer in their house known as the "junk drawer." It's known for being the catch all and for being disorganized (unless you're my sister and then your junk drawer is practically alphabetized...). Our junk drawer made me crazy the other day when I went to pull out a pen and after three attempts to find one that works, I decided I needed to organize it.

It's a small triumph but our junk drawer went from this

to this.

Now if I can just keep it this way...

the kiddos...

So my sister just sent these to me and I had to pass them along, with our little update.

Our nephews are doing so well! They are so good with our baby girl. They love to make her laugh and they love to bring her things and show her things. They are so gentle with her and it makes our hearts smile to see their nurturing spirits.

Our baby girl is a pure delight! She has so much love to give and receive and she is still so generous with her smiles and snuggles. She loves to mimic and that is so fun (things like pointing to your nose and then to her nose and saying "Nose..." then giving the biggest smile ever." (She is so smart!) She loves to hold out her open palm so that you can kiss it and then she puts it to her mouth, kisses it, and then holds it out again for you to kiss. My heart melts every time.

My sister is incredible. We laugh at how going from 2 to 3 kids is like going from a man on man defense to zone defense. She and my brother-in-law are an amazing team and I am so happy to see them so content and full of joy in their family. It feels so complete now to all of us and our hearts are so full!

Power Outages...

So we lost power yesterday from 9 am until 2 pm. It was only five hours, but it made me laugh how much I depend on electricity. I realized how much time I spend on the computer, how much all my cooking deals with the microwave, oven or some appliance and how much I have music on so that the house isn't too quiet. I couldn't go anywhere because my car was in the garage and I couldn't get the door up and all my clocks were out and my cell phone was dead so I had no idea what time it was until the mail man came and he always comes around 1 pm. I had to share with you how codependent I am on electricity and that I survived (note sarcasm) even though I couldn't check my email for the 100 times that day and there is a lot of food that doesn't require the use of an outlet. Who'd have thought!

What my "powerless" day looked like:

~cleaned a little

~took bath to help with fever

~read (first to Ryder than my own book)

~napped

~ate peanut butter and jelly sandwich and tangelo off our tree

~napped again (note I had a fever)

So I am going to try to conserve more and be aware of how much energy I use in a day...

It should be interesting and eye opening...(and if anything like today, pretty restful...)

Feeling yucky...

I have been home sick the last few days and so far it doesn't feel like there is a light at the end of the tunnel. I have been coughing so hard that I pulled an abdominal muscle (which happens to be located right where Ryder likes to be) so I have been having really sharp pain each and every time I cough, twice to where I burst into tears because it hurt so bad. I feel so bad for my little man, I have these huge coughing fits and then I get a contraction or two and so needless to say, the little guy has not had the calmest of environments a we approach our 8th month marker. Doc Holiday has nothing on me.

I was feeling really sorry for myself today because I added a fever to the mix and that made me feel even lousier. Then I realized how much I have to snap out it. So I am sick, anything terminal, NO. Is Kit taking care of me and putting up with my whiney ways? YES. Do I have a job that I love that covers me when I am sick? YES. Just turn on the news and you can see how much real pain and heart ache is out there. I hate how self absorbed I can be.

I have been keeping a journal for years now and I often write things that I am thankful/grateful for, things that I count as blessings in my life. We hope to have a gratitude journal with our kids as well so that they can see, as well as Kit and I, how much we truly have. It sounds silly, but it's days like today that I need to pull that journal out so that I can really get a grip.

Things that I added to the list today:

~Our healthy pregnancy

~My bed that is sheltered from the rain and cold outside

~Kit and his persistent spirit

(which got me my medication 24 hours sooner than I would have gotten it had I dealt with it on my own... Kit worked his magic... THANKS HONEY!)

NOTE: I could have a whole book on things I am thankful for about Kit, but this particular one hit home today

~The ability to read a good book

~Sisters and Mothers who love you even when you are at your grouchiest

Thank you guys for checking up on me. I feel very loved...

So what would you put in a gratitude journal today? I would love to hear. The best thing is that it brings joy to hear others thankful hearts and then people can be thankful with you...

Prayer

I have printed this prayer up in our bathroom for the last few months and I read it every morning and evening when getting ready for the day or getting ready for bed. It's from my prayer book by Richard Foster, and I wanted to share it with you.

a formation prayer

O Lord, my God. Form me more fully into your likeness. Use the circumstances and interactions of this day to form your will in me.

From the frustrations of this day form peace.

From the joys of this day form strength.

From the struggles of this day form courage.

From the beauties of this day form love.

In the name of Jesus Christ who is all peace and strength and courage and love.

Amen

It's February!

I was at work on february 1st and as I wrote the date throughout the day, I couldn't believe that january is gone and that we are already to february! Time is flying!

Is it just me or do you feel that way too...

So in honor of this month, I thought of some books that I wanted to share with you.

I hope that you have a chance to check them out. They are really sweet stories...

Enjoy!

(Guess How Much I Love You is an all time favorite of ours...)

Oh the places you'll go...

I tackled a little project yesterday that has been on my list for a couple of months now. Now matter how small those tasks might be, I always feel so good getting them checked off my list.

So in our room, on our dresser, are pictures from everywhere that we have travelled together. I always pick one picture from each trip that I chose to frame. We love to travel and having those photos out reminds of of all the fun that we have had traveling together. So I wanted to mark each frame with the location and the year that we traveled to that place. So I borrowed my mom's label maker and went to town.

I realized how fortunate we have been to travel to so many amazing places, some for fun, some with missions, and some for work, but we have really enjoyed all the places that we have been. Kit and I really enjoy being together and traveling is no exception.

I look forward to adding many more pictures to our collection.

(Just maybe not this year...)

Kit, thank you for helping to fill our lives with such wonderful memories.

I love you so...

Home

I love quiet days that I get to just be at home. I am a homebody and I can't get enough of being in my own space. I read, I watch movies, I bake/cook, I clean, I garden and recently have been thoroughly enjoying my "nesting" phase. It has also been so fun to feel Ryder moving throughout the day! It is the greatest thing ever, but I just can't wait to meet him!

I know that these quiet alone moments are numbered as Ryder's birth day gets closer, but I know that I will appreciate them even more when he is down for a nap or just cuddling in my arms. I really can't wait to watch Kit with him. I think that will be one of the best things ever!

Kit and I were talking today about how our family won't just be the two of us anymore. I know that so many wonderful things will come with his arrival, but it is interesting to think of life with another human being in our house and how our family will include another person.

It has been the two of us for so long. We have been married over seven years and together for over 11 and I keep thinking how crazy it is that our family, that we started together is expanding! I think that it hits us at different times, but it is so nice to be able to be on the same page with my Kit. He makes parenthood so much less daunting to me. I love that he is my teammate...

Ryder Pierce Rae

So here are the pictures of Ryder at 30 weeks, in 4D. We are so in love with his little face. I personally think that he looks like one of Kit's newborn pictures, but we will see when he gets here. Here are our favorites of 77 pictures (my mom went a little crazy...)

Things that we saw on our ultrasound:

~He is healthy!

~He has long toes and fingers...

~We saw him open his eyes and yawn and swallow...

~He is currently breech (his head is up by my ribs and his legs and bottom are down...)

~He was holding his feet near his face... (flexible little guy!)

~He has positioned himself so that he can CONSTANTLY hit my belly button (which is starting to hurt a little bit, but at least I know he is OK with all of his moving)

~He is measuring almost two weeks bigger than his initial ultrasound

(which means he is measuring to be due march 30...)

~He has hair!

Needless to say, we can't wait to meet him!

Kit called me at work today to tell me that he can't stop looking at his picture...

That melted my heart!

Sleepy little boy... it is exhausting having to grow so big!